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This paper describes the methodology for the assessment of the socio-economic impact of SAFESPOT applications. The applications selected for the assessment cover vehicle to vehicle (v2v) as well as vehicle to infrastructure (v2i) communication systems. The applications address main problem areas of road safety: accidents at intersections, accidents due to hazardous road and weather conditions and accidents due to over speeding and inappropriate distance. The assessment methodology relies in its core on cost-benefit analysis (CBA) as the most widespread tool to assess the profitability of applications form the society point of view. The assessment is however not limited to CBA but also considers the economic effects for particular stakeholder groups such as users, public authorities and the like. Their individual cost and benefits can be investigated in stakeholder analyses. Both elements, CBA and stakeholder analysis, form an integrated assessment approach which is applied here. The assessment makes use of the sound methodological base which was provided by projects such as SEiSS and eIMPACT. Some characteristics of co-operative systems however call for special attention within the assessment. Most prominently, the assessment will concentrate on a bundle of applications. The impact of this bundle will be assessed under the conditions of different business and service models. These issues will be addressed in the paper. Moreover, this paper also provides insight in likely patterns of results and first results of socio-economic impact assessment itself.
Bestimmte Fragestellungen der Verkehrssicherheitsarbeit und der Unfallforschung, speziell solche zu neuen Informationstechnologien im Fahrzeug, lassen sich nur mit Fahrproben beantworten. In dem Bericht sind bisherige Erfahrungen zusammengestellt, die bei der Durchführung von Fahrproben gemacht wurden. Im einzelnen werden Verfahrensvorschläge für folgende Problembereiche erörtert: Einflussfelder, Untersuchungsinstrumente und Entwicklung von Fahrversuchen; Operationalisierung der Fragestellung; Fahrraumdefinitionen (Fahrraum und Umfeld); Verknüpfung von Situation und Fahrraumumfeld; Grundlagen und Festlegung der statistischen Prüfmethoden; Anforderungen an die Messstrecke, das Messfahrzeug und die Auswerteeinheit; Versuchsdesign und statistische Sicherheitswahrscheinlichkeit; Versuchspersonenauswahl; Homogenisierung der Versuchspersonenstichprobe; Effektstärken; Stichprobengröße; Datenerhebung; Datenstrukturierung; Auswertung sowie Dokumentation. Es handelt sich nicht um ein in sich geschlossenes Methodenbuch, sondern um einen Methodenaufriss einschließlich Literaturangaben.
New vehicle types are extensively tested to check almost all factors that influence ride and handling. With reference to the Association of German Car Tuners" (VDAT e.V.) valuations, approximately 10% of all cars in Germany are being modified by their owners. 28 % of those modifications" sales are divergent wheel-tire combinations, 13 % are tuning measures on the chassis suspension or wheel spacers. In almost all cases the singular modifications present a general permission for specific vehicles they have been tested in. Combined tuning measures, however, are often checked by just one inspector, following a procedure of mostly subjective assessment criteria. Today, critical attributes are only being observed, in case a vehicle is involved in an accident and the modifications are identified as crash causal factors or as a cofactor on the development of a crash. For the first time, a field study allows a survey of safety affecting chassis modifications. The test layout has to comply with some basic conditions. Different vehicle concepts with a wide margin of modifications are required to get a high transferability of the results. A total amount of more than 150 tested vehicles serves the same purpose. The tests are limited concerning the installation time of measurement techniques and the requirement that no damage, defilement or immoderate wear of the vehicles are accepted by their owners. Due to such factors as well as the driver Ìs acceptance, the vehicles are controlled by its owners instead of robots or test drivers. For keeping down the driver- influence, the lane has narrow boundaries and the driver has to drive in strictly adherence to the given instructions. After gathering all modifications, as well as static and kinematic parameters like the toe and camber angle, dynamic testing of predominantly lateral dynamics is conducted. Besides standardized tests like the ISO 3888-2 (Obstacle Avoidance) or the ISO 14512 (Braking on Surfaces with Split Coefficient of Friction), to test the influence of modified kingpin offsets caused by wheel spacers, some deviant tests are conducted. Those are required due to the demand of objective test results for road tests with vertical induced stimulation of the chassis suspension. Hence, new tests on corner braking with and without vertical stimulation have been developed. The interpretation of data includes thresholds, e.g. the maximum entrance velocity without hitting cones, on the one hand, and the analysis of characteristics of data concerning time and frequency range, "1-second values" and peak response times on the other hand. Besides the thresholds as indicators for the achievable velocities, which are mainly affected by friction coefficients, the vehicle reaction in the course of time characterizes the vehicle reaction in the threshold range and consequently the operational demands on the driver. The field study has started and promises the first long-range analysis of chassis modifications. The results offer a basis for hypothesis and resultant further test layouts for oncoming studies of the identified critical tuning measures.
Established in 1997, the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) provides consumers with a safety performance assessment for the majority of the most popular cars in Europe. Thanks to its rigorous crash tests, Euro NCAP has rapidly become an important driver safety improvement to new cars. After ten years of rating vehicles, Euro NCAP felt that a change was necessary to stay in tune with rapidly emerging driver assistance and crash avoidance systems and to respond to shifting priorities in road safety. A new overall rating system was introduced that combines the most important aspects of vehicle safety under a single star rating. The overall rating system has allowed Euro NCAP to continue to push for better fitment and higher performance for vehicles sold on the European market. In the coming years, the safety rating is expected to play an important role in the support of the roll-out of highly automated vehicles.
In Germany the number of casualties in passenger car to pedestrian crashes has been reduced by a considerable amount of 40% as regards fatalities and 25% with regard to seriously injured pedestrians since the year 2001. Similar trends can be seen in other European countries. The reasons for that positive development are still under investigation. As infrastructural or behavioral changes do in general take a longer time to be effective in real world, explanations related to improved active and passive safety of passenger vehicles can be more relevant in providing answers for this trend. The effect of passive pedestrian protection " specified by the Euro NCAP pedestrian test result " is of particular interest and has already been analyzed by several authors. However, the number of vehicles with some valid Euro NCAP pedestrian score (post 2002 rating) was quite limited in most of those studies. To overcome this problem of small datasets German National Accident Records have been taken to investigate a similar objective but now based on a much bigger dataset. The paper uses German National Accident Records from the years 2009 to 2011. In total 65.140 records of pedestrian to passenger car crashes have been available. Considering crash parameters like accident location (rural / urban areas) etc., 27.143 of those crashes have been classified to be relevant for the analysis of passive pedestrian safety. In those 27.143 records 7.576 Euro NCAP rated vehicles (post 2002 rating) have been identified. In addition it was possible to identify vehicles which comply with pedestrian protection legislation (2003/102/EG) where phase 1 came into force in October 2005. A significant correlation between Euro NCAP pedestrian score and injury outcome in real-life car to pedestrian crashes was found. Comparing a vehicle scoring 5 points and a vehicle scoring 22 points, pedestrians" conditional probability of getting fatally injured is reduced by 35% (from 0.58% to 0.37%) for the later one. At the same time the probability of serious injuries can be reduced by 16% (from 27.4% to 22.9%). No significant injury reducing effect, associated with the introduction of pedestrian protection legislation (phase 1) was detected. Considerable effects have also been identified comparing diesel and gasoline cars. Higher engine displacements are associated with a lower injury risk for pedestrians. The most relevant parameter has been "time of accident", whereas pedestrians face a more than 2 times higher probability to be fatally injured during night and darkness as compared to daytime conditions.
Vor dem Hintergrund der derzeitigen Verkehrs- und Unfallsituation sowie verkehrsrechtlicher Vorschriften wurde durch Auswertung humanwissenschaftlicher und technischer Literatur eine Sachstandsbeschreibung erstellt, die die in Zusammenhang mit Auffahrunfällen und ihrer Verhinderung stehenden Aspekte aufzeigt. Als fahrzeugtechnische Hilfen zur Einhaltung eines ausreichenden Abstandes zwischen hintereinander fahrenden Fahrzeugen werden dabei vorrangig autarke Systeme - das sind solche, bei denen sich alle notwendigen Vorrichtungen im Fahrzeug befinden - betrachtet. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der bekannten technischen Hilfsmittel, insbesondere der Abstandswarn- und Abstandsregelungseinrichtungen werden aufgezeigt. Es stellte sich heraus, dass den Warnstrategien sowie ihren Auswirkungen auf den Verkehrsablauf und die Verkehrssicherheit besondere Bedeutung zukommt. In diesem Zusammenhang werden auch Zielkonflikte, insbesondere zwischen Sicherheitsforderungen und Fahrerakzeptanz, deutlich. Im Teil I des Berichts erfolgt die zusammenfassende Beschreibung und kritische Wertung des Sachstandes. Im Teil II werden die Auswerteergebnisse zu den angesprochenen Fragenkomplexen im einzelnen dargestellt. Teil III enthält eine Kurzdokumentation der für die Erstellung des Berichts wesentlichsten Literaturstellen.
Erkenntnisse über den Nutzen zusätzlicher hochgesetzter Bremsleuchten sind lückenhaft und zum Teil widersprüchlich. Im Rahmen einer Untersuchung über den Einfluss zusätzlicher Bremsleuchten auf das Unfallgeschehen wurden u.a. folgende Fragen behandelt: 1. Entwicklung der Unfälle durch Auffahren auf Fahrzeuge, die mit zusätzlichen Bremsleuchten ausgerüstet sind, 2. Entwicklung der Auffahrunfälle insgesamt, 3. Verletzungen von Fahrzeuginsassen durch Leuchten, 4. Auswirkungen auf die übrigen Verkehrsteilnehmer (Abstand, Blendung, Fehlreaktion). Anhand konkreter Daten über das Unfallgeschehen in Bayern und Niedersachsen kommt der Beitrag insgesamt zu dem Urteil, dass die derzeitige Regelung weder durch eine Einbauvorschrift noch durch ein Einbauverbot hochgesetzter Bremsleuchten ersetzt werden müsste.
Stellungnahme zu einer Ausdehnung der Schutzhelmtragepflicht auf Moped/Mokick- und Mofabenutzer
(1977)
Im Hinblick auf die Unfallentwicklung bei motorisierten Zweiradfahrern wurde eine Untersuchung zur Ausdehnung der Verpflichtung, einen Schutzhelm zu tragen, auf Moped/Mokick- und Mofafahrer durchgeführt. Die Unfallschwere bei Außerortsunfällen ist hervorzuheben. Dabei handelt es sich überwiegend um Kopfverletzungen. Die Schutzwirkung von Helmen wird generell positiv eingeschätzt. Auf 1976 bezogen hätten bei Helmtragepflicht und 100 % Tragequote vermutlich rund 140 Tote, 2200 Schwerverletzte und 4400 Leichtverletzte eingespart werden können. Es wird empfohlen, die Helmtragepflicht zwingend vorzuschreiben. Nach den bisherigen Erfahrungen würde die Helmtragepflicht ohne Bußgeldbewehrung nicht auf die optimale Größenordnung angehoben werden können. Schutzhelme für motorisierte Zweiradfahrer sollten mindestens der DIN 4848 (1970) "Kraftfahrer-Schutzhelme" entsprechen, auch wenn die DIN 4848 noch nicht voll alle Forderungen an Schutzhelme abdeckt. Die Helmtragepflicht sollte so schnell wie möglich eingeführt werden. Die Einführung der Helmtragepflicht ist besonders auch unter gesamtwirtschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten sinnvoll.
A means of assessing the passive safety of automobiles is a desirable instrument for legislative bodies, the automobile industry, and the consumer. As opposed to the dominating motor vehicle assessment criteria, such as engine power, spaciousness, aerodynamics and consumption, there are no clear and generally accepted criteria for assessing the passive safety of cars. The proposed method of assessment combines the results of experimental safety tests, carried out according to existing legally prescribed or currently discussed testing conditions, and a biomechanical validation of the loading values determined in the test. This evaluation is carried out with the aid of risk functions which are specified for individual parts of the body by correlating the results of accident analysis with those obtained by computer simulation. The degree of conformance to the respective protection criterion thus deduced is then weighted with factors which take into account the frequency of occurrence and the severity of the accident on the basis of resulting costs. Each of the test series includes at least two frontal and one lateral crash test against a deformable barrier. The computer-aided analysis and evaluation of the simulation results enables a vehicle-specific overall safety index as well as partial and individual safety values to be determined and plotted graphically. The passive safety provided by the respective vehicle under test can be defined for specific seating positions, special types of accident, or for individual endangered parts of the body.
The GRSP informal group on child restraint systems (CRS) finalised phase 1 of a new regulation for the homologation of CRS . This regulation is the subject of several discussions concerning the safety benefits and the advantages and disadvantages that certain specific points may bring. However, these discussions are sometimes not based on scientific facts and do not consider the whole package but only single items. Based on the experience of the CASPER partners in the fields of human behaviour, accident analysis, test procedures and biomechanics in the area of child safety, a consideration of the safety benefits of phase 1 of the new regulation and recommendations for phase 2 will be given.
The off-set assessment procedure potentially contributes to the FIMCAR objectives to maintain the compartment strength and to assess load spreading in frontal collisions. Furthermore it provides the opportunity to assess the restraint system performance with different pulses if combined with a full-width assessment procedure in the frontal assessment approach. Originally it was expected that the PDB assessment procedure would be selected for the FIMCAR assessment approach. However, it was not possible to deliver a compatibility metric in time so that the current off-set procedure (ODB as used in UNECE R94) with some minor modifications was proposed for the FIMCAR Assessment Approach. Nevertheless the potential to assess load spreading, which appears not to be possible with any other assessed frontal impact assessment procedure was considered to be still high. Therefore the development work for the PDB assessment procedure did not stop with the decision not to select the PDB procedure. As a result of the decisions to use the current ODB and to further develop the PDB procedure, both are covered within this deliverable. The deliverable describes the off-set test procedure that will be recommended by FIMCAR consortium, this corresponds to the ODB test as it is specified in UN-ECE Regulation 94 (R94), i.e. EEVC deformable element with 40% overlap at a test speed of 56 km/h. In addition to the current R94 requirements, FIMCAR will recommend to introduce some structural requirements which will guarantee sufficiently strong occupant compartments by enforcing the stability of the forward occupant cell. With respect to the PDB assessment procedure a new metric, Digital Derivative in Y direction - DDY, was developed, described, analysed, and compared with other metrics. The DDY metric analyses the deformation gradients laterally across the PDB face. The more even the deformation, the lower the DDY values and the better the metric- result. In order analyse the different metrics, analysis of the existing PDB test results and the results of the performed simulation studies was performed. In addition, an assessment of artificial deformation profiles with the metrics took place. This analysis shows that there are still issues with the DDY metric but it appears that it is possible to solve them with future optimisations. For example the current metric assesses only the area within 60% of the half vehicle width. For vehicles that have the longitudinals further outboard, the metric is not effective. In addition to the metric development, practical issues of the PDB tests such as the definition of a scan procedure for the analysis of the deformation pattern including the validation of the scanning procedure by the analysis of 3 different scans at different locations of the same barrier were addressed. Furthermore the repeatability and reproducibility of the PDB was analysed. The barrier deformation readings seem to be sensitive with respect to the impact accuracy. In total, the deliverable is meant to define the FIMCAR off-set assessment procedure and to be a starting point for further development of the PDB assessment procedure.
Sowohl mit dem 3. Road Safety Action Programme der Europäischen Kommission als auch mit dem deutschen Verkehrssicherheitsprogramm werden die verkehrspolitischen Zielsetzungen zur Erhöhung der Verkehrssicherheit in Europa und Deutschland festgelegt. Hierbei muss die passive Fahrzeugsicherheit auch weiterhin eine bedeutende Rolle übernehmen. Es ist jedoch auch festzustellen, dass durch den zunehmenden Einsatz von Elektronik im Fahrzeug die klassischen Bereiche der aktiven und passiven Fahrzeugsicherheit mehr und mehr ineinander greifen. Der Fortschritt in der Elektronik ermöglicht eine Integration der Systeme der aktiven und passiven Sicherheit. Dadurch lässt sich die Fahrzeugsicherheit weiter steigern. Durch die Vernetzung der Systeme lassen sich sogar Kosten einsparen. Der europäische Regierungsausschuss EEVC (European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee), die Verbraucherschutzorganisation Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) und die Europäische Kommission mit der eSafety Initiative haben diesen Trend erkannt und entsprechende Aktivitäten eingeleitet.
Teil 1 des vorliegenden Berichts nimmt zur Frage nach den Erfahrungen mit der (unbewehrten) Helmtragepflicht für Moped/Mokick-Benutzer Stellung. Dabei zeigen die Daten der amtlichen Straßenverkehrsunfallstatistik eine Verbesserung der Verletzungsschwerestruktur, dies allerdings auch schon in den Jahren der Erweiterung der Helmtragepflicht. In Teil 2 wird über das Helmtrageverhalten nach Einführung des Verwarnungsgeldes berichtet. Hier zeigte sich eine deutliche Verbesserung. In Teil 3 schließlich wird die Frage untersucht, ob sich aus der amtlichen Straßenverkehrsunfallstatistik eine überproportionale Beteiligung der jugendlichen Mofabenutzer am Unfallgeschehen nachweisen lässt. In den Jahren 1977 bis 1979 verunglückten insgesamt 87556 Mofabenutzer. Mehr als die Hälfte der Verunglückten war jünger als 18 Jahre; fast zwei Drittel war jünger als 21 Jahre. Nur knapp ein Viertel war 35 Jahre und älter.
The purpose of this paper is to review injuries found in real world lateral collisions and determine the mechanisms responsible for certain kinds of biomechanical failure. During the last years the distribution of deaths among the different types of accidents has changed. Lateral collisions now are the most frequent cause of fatal and other serious injuries. Every third accident is an impact from the side, while every second fatality is the result of a lateral accident. Just a few years ago this value was no higher than 30%. This is probably the result of increasing safety standards for frontal collisions (airbags, seatbelt usage, structural improvements of cars, etc.). Although the number of registered vehicles increased, the total amount of fatalities decreased during the same period. Thus it is now necessary to pay greater attention to the lateral accident situation in order to improve road safety and decrease the number of traffic injuries. Several European organisations had decided to launch the project SID2000, which was funded by the European Commission, with the intention of gathering more knowledge on injuries occurring in lateral accidents and the mechanisms that lead to such injuries. This should enable the group to define the requirements for a new side impact dummy (SID) to be designed. Within the same project the existing TNO-EUROSID 1 was enhanced by another group and the experience gained has now enabled allowed to design a better measuring device for side impacts. The data used for this contribution came from sources from all over Europe and had to be gathered in such a manner that as many accident parameters as possible were taken into account.
The 2BeSafe project (2-Wheeler Behaviour and Safety) is a collaborative project (co financed by the European Commission) that aims to study the naturalistic behaviour of Powered-Two-Wheeler (PTW) riders in normal and critical riding situations. That includes the interaction between PTW riders and other road users and possible conflicts between them. One of the predominant causes of accidents involving PTWs is that PTWs are often overlooked by other road users. One task of the project lead by BASt therefore deals with possible improvements in conspicuity and the development of recommendations. Particularly using the findings of the studies on conflict situations, promising lighting arrangements to enhance conspicuity of PTWs during the day and at night are selected. An abstract recognizing pattern for PTWs is defined, enabling other road users (e.g. car drivers) to clearly identify riders. Lamps and outfit like lighting configurations of different colours, different helmet lights, reflect / luminescent clothing parts and retro-reflective markings are designed and manufactured. Then, the different solutions are tested in a laboratory setting using experimental motorcycles together with riders to which the equipment is fitted. As result a proposal for a uniform signal pattern or lamp configuration in the front of all motorcycles and riders will be outlined. The contribution first gives a short overview of the topics of the research project that deal with conflicts and their connection with poor conspicuity and then presents in detail the methods used in the activities concerning solutions for the improvement of conspicuity together with first results.
Wegen der wachsenden Verbreitung von Fahrradanhängern zum Kindertransport und der möglichen Unfallgefährdung ist im vorliegenden Forschungsprojekt deren passive Sicherheit untersucht worden. Zudem wurde der Frage nachgegangen, ob der Transport von Kindern im Fahrradanhänger sicherer ist als mit dem Fahrrad mit Kindersitzen. In Absprache mit Herstellern und Vertreibern wurden verschiedene Untersuchungen durchgeführt. Es handelte sich um Anprallversuche (Anfahrversuche), Rollwagenversuche (Schlittenversuche) sowie Kopffreiheitsprüfungen und Fallversuche. Bei den Versuchen waren die Prüfobjekte mit einem oder zwei Dummies besetzt, die mit Messdatenaufnehmern ausgestattet waren. Verschiedene Messdaten, zum Beispiel Kopf- und Brustbeschleunigung, wurden erfasst und ausgewertet. Zusätzlich wurde das Kopfschutzkriterium (HPC) berechnet und bewertet. Entstandene Schäden an den Prüfobjekten wurden aufgenommen und durch Fotos dokumentiert. Die Versuchsabläufe selbst wurden mit Hochgeschwindigkeitskameras aus verschiedenen Positionen aufgezeichnet. Beim Anfahrversuch mit einem Pkw gegen ein Gespann aus Fahrrad und Anhänger waren direkte Anstöße der Anhängerinsassen an die Pkw-Front zu erkennen. Die Beschleunigungswerte waren dabei relativ hoch. Anstöße gegen Anhängerinnenteile waren bei fast allen Versuchen zu beobachten. Teilweise wurden Radaufhängungen und Radnaben beschädigt. Durch die Rollwagenversuche wurden konstruktive Schwächen bei den Sitzen und Rückhaltesystemen festgestellt. Nähte, Befestigungen und Verstellösen wurden zerstört. Es stellte sich heraus, dass die Qualität des Gurtsystems, die Steifigkeit des Anhängeraufbaus, die Sitzposition der Kinder und die vorhandene Kopffreiheit ausschlaggebend für das Verletzungsrisiko der Insassen sind. Bei den Versuchen mit Fahrradsitzen ergaben sich hohe Beschleunigungswerte durch den direkten Kontakt des Radfahrers mit der Fahrzeugfront und/oder der Fahrbahn. Das Gewicht des Radfahrers, des Fahrrades und auch Fahrradteile bergen ein erhöhtes Verletzungsrisiko für das Kind. Zusätzlich besteht die Gefahr überfahren zu werden, wenn das Kind nach dem Sturz des Fahrrades ungeschützt auf der Fahrbahn liegt. Ein direkter Vergleich der beiden Transportmöglichkeiten war aufgrund der geringen Daten der Versuche mit Fahrradkindersitzen nur bedingt möglich. Tendenziell ist der Transport der Kinder im Fahrradanhänger als weniger gefährlich zu bewerten. Es werden die Vor- und Nachteile dargestellt. Zur Bewertung der Sicherheit von Fahrradanhängern wurden die folgenden Prüfmethoden erarbeitet: - Pendelschlagprüfung für die gesamte Chassisstruktur; - Kopffreiheitsprüfung; - Belastungsprüfung der Aufbaustruktur; - Festigkeitsprüfung der Gurtsysteme. Die Prüfungen sind so aufgebaut, dass sie mit einfachen Mitteln durchzuführen sind. Es sollte somit jedem Anhängerhersteller möglich sein, die passive Sicherheit seiner Produkte umfassend zu untersuchen. Die Prüfverfahren für die Sicherheitsbewertung sollen in eine DIN-Norm und in das Merkblatt für Fahrradanhänger einfließen. Der Original-Forschungsbericht enthält einen umfangreichen Fotoband zu den Einzelheiten der Versuche und Versuchsaufbauten sowie zu den Beschädigungen der Prüfobjekte und kann bei der BASt eingesehen werden.
Despite the steadily declining number of pedestrian fatalities and injuries in most European countries during recent decades, pedestrian protection is still of great importance in the European Union as well as in Germany. This is because they still constitute a large proportion of road user casualties and are more likely to suffer serious and fatal injuries than most other road users. In 1999 only car occupants suffered more fatal injuries than pedestrians in Germany. In December 1998, EEVC WG 17 completed their review and updating of the EEVC WG 10 pedestrian test procedure that made it possible to evaluate the protection afforded to pedestrians by the front of passenger cars in an accident. Within the scope of this procedure, four different impactors are used representing those parts of the body which are injured very often and/or very seriously in vehicle-pedestrian-collisions. In a project executed by IKA and BASt, a small family car was tested according to the EEVC WG 17 test procedure. Afterwards modifications to the car were carried out in order to improve the pedestrian protection provided by the vehicle design. There were certain restrictions placed on the level of modifications undertaken, e.g. only minor modifications to vehicle styling and to the vehicle structures, which provide passenger protection. The redesigned vehicle was tested again using the WG 17 test procedure. The test results of the modified vehicle were compared with those of the standard vehicle and evaluated. The results show that considered measures for pedestrian protection in many areas of the vehicle front structure and the use of innovative techniques can lead to a significant reduction of the loads of pedestrians at an acceptable expense.
Many big cities in Europe and elsewhere in the world have problems managing the traffic especially during rush hours. The improvement of the parking problematic and environmental protection as well are important aspects for the future traffic design of urban areas. To improve the traffic situation the development of new traffic concepts and alternative vehicles are required. The BMW company has developed a new type of two-wheel vehicle. This two-wheeler constitutes a totally new concept. BMW implemented a lot of safety features, such as a structure made up of rollover bars and a crush element instead of a front protecting plate. Furthermore the driver can secure himself with two safety belts. The paper contains a description of the novel two-wheel vehicle concept designed so far. BMW's concept and the safety features are also explained. The Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) was given the task of assessing the concept as a whole with regard to the active and passive safety and the exemption of the obligation to wear a helmet. The expertise concluded that the BMW two-wheeler concept has a very high safety standard. Some extracts of the expertise, in particular the investigations concerning the exemption of the obligation to wear a helmet are presented. Common legal requirements for the vehicle registration of vehicle concepts similar to the BMW two-wheeler in Germany have been formulated.
For the assessment of vehicle safety in frontal collisions, the crash compatibility between the colliding vehicles is crucial. Compatibility compromises both the self protection and the partner protection properties of vehicles. For the accident data analysis, the CCIS (GB) and GIDAS (DE) in-depth data bases were used. Selection criteria were frontal car accidents with car in compliance with ECE R94. For this study belted adult occupants in the front seats sustaining MAIS 2+ injuries were studied. Following this analysis FIMCAR concluded that the following compatibility issues are relevant: - Poor structural interaction (especially low overlap and over/underriding) - Compartment strength - Frontal force mismatch with lower priority than poor structural interaction In addition injuries arising from the acceleration loading of the occupant are present in a significant portion of frontal crashes. Based on the findings of the accident analysis the aims that shall be addressed by the proposed assessment approach were defined and priorities were allocated to them. The aims and priorities shall help to decide on suitable test procedures and appropriate metrics. In general it is anticipated that a full overlap and off-set test procedure is the most appropriate set of tests to assess a vehicle- frontal impact self and partner protection.
To improve vehicle safety in frontal collisions, the crash compatibility between the colliding vehicles is crucial. Compatibility aims to improve both the self and partner protection properties of vehicles. Although compatibility has received worldwide attention for many years, no final assessment approach has been defined. Within the Frontal Impact and Compatibility Assessment Research (FIMCAR) project, different frontal impact test procedures (offset deformable barrier [ODB] test as currently used for Economic Commission for Europe [ECE] R94, progressive deformable barrier test as proposed by France for a new ECE regulation, moveable deformable barrier test as discussed worldwide, full-width rigid barrier test as used in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard [FMVSS] 208, and full-width deformable barrier test) were analyzed regarding their potential for future frontal impact legislation. The research activities focused on car-to-car frontal impact accidents based on accident investigations involving newer cars. Test procedures were developed with both a crash test program and numerical simulations. The proposal from FIMCAR is to use a full-width test procedure with a deformable element and compatibility metrics in combination with the current offset test as a frontal impact assessment approach that also addresses compatibility. By adding a full-width test to the current ODB test it is possible to better address the issues of structural misalignment and injuries resulting from high acceleration accidents as observed in the current fleet. The estimated benefit ranges from a 5 to 12 percent reduction of fatalities and serious injuries resulting from frontal impact accidents. By using a deformable element in the full-width test, the test conditions are more representative of real-world situations with respect to acceleration pulse, restraint system triggering time, and deformation pattern of the front structure. The test results are therefore expected to better represent real-world performance of the tested car. Furthermore, the assessment of the structural alignment is more robust than in the rigid wall test.